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Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Adventures In Advertising: The Secret Of The Best Presenter I Ever Saw

I thought I would share the secret of the best presenter I ever saw.  His advice is the secret to making great speeches and presentations.

Ad agencies love to rehearse pending client presentations.  It is understandable:  they want the presentation to be perfect so they can sell the work or land the account.  There is only one problem.  Everyone in the room, from the most senior person to the most junior must be of one mind - they must believe in and love what they are selling.

Rehearsal cannot sell. Correcting people's syntax and the way they express themselves cannot sell. Only attitudes can.  Having confidence in in the work and communicating that belief is far more important than any talking points which someone might want to include in the presentation.  It isn’t that the talking points aren’t valid, it is that they have to be made in a forceful and passionate manner – from the gut.

In my first advertising job, I worked for the Richard K. Manoff Agency (subsequently bought by McCann).  Dick Manoff was the best presenter I ever met or saw.  He was an account guy and he was mesmerizing when he talked to clients (all employees loved to go to the one way mirror in the conference room and watch him present).  One day I asked him what his secret was.  He told me two things which have stayed with me for my whole career, even still.

First, he said, you have to absolutely believe in what you are selling.  Second, your words have to come from your gut.  In fact, words matter less than attitude when presenting.  To put it another way, words don’t sell, attitudes do.   

What great advice!

Ad agencies tend to practice and re-rehearse their presentations, sometimes to the point where they sound over-rehearsed and the actual presentation sounds memorized and insincere - kind of like reading a speech, . From the time I was an account supervisor, I had a hard time practicing what I was going to say thanks to Mr. Manoff. In fact, when agencies I worked at insisted on going over and over what we were going to say, I said what they wanted me to say in the rehearsal and then simply spoke from my gut when I presented, forgetting the practiced script, except very important points.  Clients believed me and I was generally able to sell the work if it was right.  It was my attitude that sold the work.  If I really believed in it, clients believed me and, if it was on strategy and there were no other unanticipated problems, the work sold.

This is a lesson that needs to be taught in every public speaking course and in every presentation class.

I promise you, David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach did not rehearse (they may have practiced, but like Mr. Manoff, when the actual presentation came, they spoke from their heart.  This is also true of icons like Mary Wells or Jay Chiat.  When they planned presentations, they told people what they were going to say without actually saying it.  As a result, their presentations were unstilted and believable. They came across as experts and the sincerity of their message came from somewhere deep inside them. 
When run-troughs are so over structured that the speakers sound stilted, the chances of selling the work goes way down.  Worse, during the client presentation when asked a question which is unexpected, over practiced people have a good chance of being unable to parry the response because it did not fit into the pre-rehearsed responses.  

I have previously written about the role of passion in success.  The story of legendary ad man George Lois is worth retelling.  When a client questioned his presentation, he threatened to jump out a window and went so far as to raising the window in his conference room and began to put his body outside.  The client was so alarmed that he immediately approved whatever it was that was presented. True?  Maybe.  But the point is that it proved to the client that George Lois believed in what he was saying and they bought the work.

I always believed that clients actually do support their agencies and want them to succeed.  Clients should be treated like friends, because they are.  And, for the most part they want to believe what you are telling them, especially when an effective account person has worked with them and pre-sold the work.

Pre-selling is one of the hallmarks of a good account person and a smart agency.

11 comments:

  1. The best presenter I ever saw was Nancy Bachrach. She was an EVP at Grey (now a successful author). She would practice but not rehearse. She passionately believed in what she was saying, and was so darn smart that she absorbed all the info and could answer any question thrown at her. I literally would sit there with my mouth agape!

    What I learned from her was not to memorize presentations, but to LEARN the material behind the presentation. And if there is a stat or answer you don't know, be honest and tell them you need to either get back to them, or refer to your notes, leave behind, source material, etc. and be honest while you are doing it.

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    1. Honesty is the best policy, of course. It, too, comes from the gut. I know Nancy, but did not know that about her. Nice compliment.

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  2. I’ve always given my best presentations / performances when I’ve done the least rehearsing. This is a must-read, especially for every over-rehearsed agency man / woman out there today.

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    1. When I got senior enough to control presentations, I would always gather the participants and choreograph the meeting. I would ask people to tell me what they were going to say, but never held rehearsals. It worked very well.

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    2. Best I ever saw was the combo of Saul Waring and Joe LaRosa. Clients would rue the day they challenged the passion and insights these two brought to the work. When they believed everyone believed

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  3. I’ve had the good fortune to pitch with some of the best presenters in the agency business. And the one thing I’ve observed about all of them over the years is that they, in some way, shape, or form, have found or find a way to inject “spontaneous” good humor into their presentations no matter how serious or substantive the subject might be. In fact, I’ve learned that self-deprecating humor is probably the best kind because it signals to the audience that you don’t take YOURSELF too seriously and are willing to share a good laugh with them at YOUR expense. It’s a humbling thing to do, but people love it and will feel endeared to you. They will be in your corner and root for you to succeed. Of course, humor is no substitute for “having the goods”, but it can go a long way toward differentiating your agency, your team, and yourself from would-be competitors. The hard part, however, is coming up with and sincerely saying something that is truly funny and relevant to all concerned. Which is why the best presenters are “The Best”. Hope this adds to the discussion and helps a bit.

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    1. Humor, too, comes from the gut. It is rarely rehearsed; spontaneity rules.

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  4. Totally agree with the main point of your article. Practice, but not rehearse and more importantly, really believe in what you're selling. This is tougher than it looks. I've been involved in helping small boutique agencies adopt consumer data-driven marketing using digital channels, and I cannot tell you how many senior leaders would glaze over when the "digital" portion of the slides appeared. Fact of the matter was, they didn't want to educate themselves about this innovation, and because they didn't want to ask questions and immerse themselves, their deer in the headlights attitude emanated out of them when we got to the "digital stuff." Short-sighted to say the least. But if you connect the dots, if they took the time to understand the stuff that was new to them, they could have believed in it - and thus, an attitude would be instilled. Good post Paul.

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  5. Paul, I agree with 99.99% of everything you say--in biz and in life. But not this post. I have never seen anyone being "over-rehearsed". It's an excuse for not practicing. In fact I used to say you are SUPPOSED to stink in practice. Stinking is a path to greatness. What I've seen is senior folk begging off rehearsals and then making bad presentations that shows their superficial knowledge. In fact practicing Q&A is important too! There's a reason why they have tons of dress rehearsals on Broadway. Segue ways, jokes, timing are most effective when there is total comfort in the material. Don't think for a second that comedians aren't well rehearsed either. Of course the ideas and commitment are always critical. But so is rehearsal. Paul, you and Allen Iverson are wrong--Practice is critical.

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    1. The great comedian, Jonathan Winters, screwed up his timing and spontaneity every time he practiced. Knowing the work and believing in it are more important than rehearsing exact words. People have to be themselves to be at their best. Practicing answers to questions and objections is not rehearsing; it is merely smart.

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